Italian architecture studio Studio Apostoli is designing a luxury wellness centre in a restored twentieth-century Milanese palazzo, scheduled to open in 2021.

The three-layer 1,000sq m facility will part of a boutique-hotel complex at the five-star Palazzo Bernasconi hotel, a project developed and owned by Italian hotel group Cipriani, and shall be named ‘Palazzo del Sarto’.

Architect Alberto Apostoli has been commissioned by the client to develop the interior design and project manage the wellness area, which has been designed to emphasise the building’s history through a detailed bespoke project.

Studio Apostoli will use cedarwood, French red marble, onyx and mosaic, gold finishes and cashmere fabrics to recall the ancient destination of Palazzo Bernasconi.

The wellness centre will be divided into male and female facilities and re-converge in a relaxation area designed to look like a cave, decorated with green onyx. The experience will be designed to complete guests’ wellness journeys with a period of relaxation and will feature a saline pool and saline nebulizer.

Both separate-sex facilities will offer an ice waterfall, a large two-level sauna – which will offer Aufguss rituals and salt sauna therapy – two multi-sensory showers and a steambath.

The female area will also feature a large hammam used for scrubs and traditional Turkish bathing rituals.

Palazzo del Sarto will be spread across three floors and include nine treatment rooms, three of which will be reserved exclusively for hotel guests where people will be able to request ritual massages and experience a tank for mud and thalasso treatments.

The wellness centre will offer massages, physiotherapy treatments or non-surgical medical consultations, as well as salon and nail services.

The facility will also cater to fitness with a gym as well as cryotherapy room on the first level to aid recovery.

"We’re proud to be part of this group project and to have been involved in the development of the wellness areas of this new facility. We’re already working in an integrated way with the support of all our collaborators, who are specialised in various disciplines," said Apostoli.

According to Studio Apostoli, the inspiration arose from a careful reading of the historical or geographical context and resulted in a reinterpretation in an all-Italian key.

Apostoli told Spa Business that: “The aesthetic language that we’ve created comes from a balance between geometric volumes and essential lines, enriched by refined materials and finishes”.

“The attitude is that of an haute couture wellness project with a plurality of sensory experiences with references to the world of fashion.”

Studio Apostoli has also been commissioned by Cipriani to create a 3,500sq m wellness centre for Cipriani Ocean resort, Club Residence and Casino in Uruguay, inspired by the concept of uncontaminated nature.

The facility will be a centred around a large statement staircase surrounded by a cascade of water, designed to look like it has eroded and smoothed the rock to create an oasis. The resort is scheduled to open in 2021.